October 25, 2016

Sarawak state secretary officially on Petronas board

Sarawak State Secretary Tan Sri Mohamad Morshidi Abdul Ghani has been appointed as a director aboard Petronas, months after a tiff between the state and national oil company.

Mohd Morshidi confirmed receiving last week the appointment letter for the position.

“As a board member representing Sarawak, my job is to bring back anything that needs further discussion to the state government,” he was quoted telling The Borneo Post.

He is now undergoing the usual procedure of submitting his documents for processing before taking up the post.

The appointment of a Sarawakian to the Petronas board was one of seven points agreed between the Sarawak state government and Petronas to resolve the deadlock between them in August.

The agreed points also included the advertisement of 192 vacant posts available then in local papers and to be filled by Sarawakians; and to increase the number of Sarawakians in management-level positions from 33 per cent to 60 per cent.

Petronas also agreed to allocate 50 undergraduate slots for Sarawakians in Universiti Teknologi Petronas; and to intensify technical training for Sarawakians and enrol more of them in its training centres throughout the country.

Petronas also agreed to back Sarawak’s petrochemical industries, while Petronas and Putrajaya agreed to weigh the state government’s intention to join the Production Sharing Contracts and benefit from the contracts.

Prior to the meeting, the Sarawak state government had in August frozen applications for work permits from non-Sarawakians wanting to take up Petronas positions there.

The permit freeze came after complaints by state-sponsored think tank Suarah Petroleum Group that Sarawakians were being replaced by Malaysians from other states, with 29 positions abolished and 13 Sarawakian senior staff retrenched.

On August 27, Adenan also announced the Sarawak government’s plans to review of the work permit applications for non-Sarawakian Petronas staff, with a subcommittee headed by Mohd Morshidi to go through the 586 positions held by non-Sarawakians.

On August 28, Sabah chief minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman said the prime minister had agreed to also appoint a Sabah representative on Petronas’s board of directors, with the Sabah finance ministry’s permanent secretary to take up that post.

Both Sabah and Sarawak have contributed to Petronas’ coffers with the wealth of their petroleum and gas resources, but the state-owned oil company was recently accused of discriminatory practices in engaging non-locals for jobs and contracts.